After this morning’s blockbuster story about NHL senior executive VP and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell being found to be a bit of a complainer regarding how calls have gone against his son, current Bruins forward, Gregory Campbell as well as his thoughts on Bruins center Marc Savard being the biggest little faker in the NHL, the NHL got their act together and issued a statement on things.

This morning I reached out to Senior Vice President of Public Relations & Media Gary Meagher via e-mail for the NHL’s statement on the matter, and he passed along this statement from NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly:

“As Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations for the National Hockey League, Colin Campbell is required to analyze and assess, candidly and directly, the performance of every member of the Hockey Operations Department — including those of all on-ice officials. He also is required to execute the direction of the 30 Clubs with regard to standards of on-ice rule enforcement as well as on-ice player conduct. In the execution of those rigorous and challenging duties over 12 seasons, Colin has been thorough, thoughtful, professional and scrupulous; his integrity has been impeccable, and he has no role whatsoever in matters pertaining to games in which his son plays. Colin Campbell has the complete confidence and support of the National Hockey League, as do all members of the Hockey Operations Department.”

This, of course, is a well thought out and reasoned response from the NHL. What’s missing here is how Campbell’s actions in helping to oversee the league’s officials plays a severe role in this entire matter. After all, it was Campbell who was in the ear of the then director of officiating Stephen Walkom concerning at least two instances where he felt his son Gregory was wronged by an official, one of whom is now without a job.

To make things clear here, Colin Campbell has always recused himself from ruling on matters that pertain to the team his son Gregory plays for, but it’s been made abundantly clear that he’s in the ear of those in charge of officiating about games that involve his son. That looks especially poor on both the league and on Campbell.

There’s also the matter of his feelings regarding his former player as New York Rangers head coach, Marc Savard. When Savard got his head nearly taken off by Matt Cooke last year, it doesn’t look very good to be the guy that let Cooke get by without a suspension. That’s not saying that Campbell didn’t suspend Cooke on purpose here, we’re just saying that it looks really, really bad. Also making things look really bad: Colin Campbell’s take on things courtesy of TSN.

Contacted by TSN for his reaction, Campbell said: “For me, it’s much ado about nothing. Stephen and I would have banter back and forth and Stephen knows I’m a (hockey) dad venting and both of us knowing it wouldn’t go any further than that. Stephen would laugh at me. The game in question (when Gregory Campbell was penalized late in the Atlanta-Florida game) wasn’t on TV and I was asking Stephen to find out for me if it was a soft call. That’s all there ever was to it. The (refs) working that game are still in the league, aren’t they? Stephen handled the officials, just like Terry Gregson does now, and I’ve got a lot of emails to those guys asking about this soft call or that soft call and that’s in a lot of games. I’m not ultimately responsible for the (on-ice) officials, that’s Terry Gregson’s responsibility, but I have to answer to GMs on these calls.”

Campbell’s glossing over the major point at hand here and focusing on just one problematic take on this entire situation. It’s a controlled, public relations-friendly take on things and that’s to be expected in such a situation. Playing it off all folksy may be his manner, but in this situation it’s not the right move. Campbell knows what the big deal is here, he’s just not going to talk about that. Not yet, anyhow.

We’re not calling for heads to roll here, we’re just hoping the NHL can see things for how they look to the common fan who might want to enjoy the game without wondering whether or not their team or any of their players are on a private black list. Appearances, in this case, mean quite a bit.